


Merlin: the musical

by mrslaurelritter



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Character names are different but personalities are the same, Inspired by Panic! at the Disco, Loosely based on British sixth form (they’re all age 17-18ish), Multi, Musicals, Tagged relationships are end game but not established the whole way through, idek I’m too old to still be in my Merlin and p!atd obsessed phase yet here we are, set in a world where bbc Merlin doesn’t exist but these kids are about to create it in musical form, they have to write and perform a jukebox musical
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:47:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28228635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrslaurelritter/pseuds/mrslaurelritter
Summary: “Now, we’ve just had the brief come through today!”“For your final assessment you must compose a jukebox musical, taking inspiration from an existing story, myth or legend without simply recreating the existing narrative.”~~In a modern day world where BBC Merlin doesn’t exist, but parents giving their kids strange names do, a group of musical theatre kid friends must work together to create and perform a jukebox musical based on a legend. Given their odd names and personalities match up with the key parts of Arthurian legend, it’s obvious what they’ll do! Kind of.All the characters are similar to how they are in the show, and they basically just recreate Merlin but as a musical, basing the characters on themselves. I promise it’s not as complicated as it sounds...
Relationships: Gwen/Lancelot (Merlin), Leon/Morgana (Merlin), Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1 - The Assignment

**Author's Note:**

> My 2020 Spotify Wrapped showed my top song of the year was (Fuck A) Silver Lining by P!atD, and my second top song was High Hopes, and if that doesn’t sum up 2020 accurately then I don’t know what does... but as I was listening to High Hopes again, I kept thinking about how the lyrics could kind of be related to Merlin’s story and thus, this weird hybrid baby was born. I’m sorry. 
> 
> The intention was that each of the characters of the show exist in the modern day world as teenagers who love musical theatre. No reincarnation, just some parents with questionable name choices. They then transpose their personalities onto the Arthurian Legend characters to make a musical based on P!atD songs that is effectively a condensed version of the TV show’s storyline, but the tv show doesn’t exist in this universe so they’re not plagiarising. Speaking of, none of these characters are mine, none of the songs are mine, I claim no ownership over anything here except the storyline. Some of the characters have slightly different names (at least to start with) because realistically, who names their kid Mordred these days? Mortimer is much more normal, theres probably loads of kids called Morty out there, right...? Just go with it, hopefully it’s not a horrifically confusing disaster! Not beta’d or anything fancy, so sorry for any mistakes!!

“Okay everybody, settle down, settle down. Your end of year assessment will make up 50% of your overall grade, so it’s really important that you all focus and work hard over the next 6 months!”  
Gaius paused and looked around the room at his students. Most were looking at him very attentively, keen to get a good grade, so he figured he’d driven his point home.  
“Now, we’ve just had the brief come through today! Your task will be-“  
“Drumroll!!”  
“That won’t be necessary Gavin, thank you very much. Anyway, as I was saying, for your final assessment you must compose a jukebox musical, taking inspiration from an existing story, myth or legend without simply recreating the existing narrative.”  
Gaius looked around his class while they took in the news. Everyone was clearly deep in thought, when his eyes flicked towards his nephew, Merlin, as a slow smile spread across his face.  
“Guys.... why don’t we base this on Arthurian legend?”  
Silence.  
Silence.  
Cacophony.  
“Brilliant idea Merlin!!!” “Perfect for us!!” “Yes mate!!! Way to go” “does that mean I’ll play the lead?” “Perfect, Merlin” “WOOHOOOOOOO”  
Gaius held out a hand to settle down his students. “So long as all of you can submit the relevant paperwork backing up your process, and you all contribute as equally as you can to the ideas process, a group as large as you lot would be acceptable to work in. I’ll leave you to figure out some rough details between yourselves, but feel free to ask me for any guidance.” he declared authoritatively, before heading to sit back at his computer and do some admin. Ahhh, the life of a college teacher. So much planning...


	2. Chapter 2 - The Plan

“Okay everyone, let’s sit in a circle so we can all see each other and start brainstorming this, shall we?”  
“Hey, who made you leader, dickhead?”  
“My natural authoritative nature and excellent leadership skills?”  
“Oh shut up Arthur, you couldn’t lead a piss up in a brewery”  
Arthur and his adopted sister Morgana glared daggers at each other, while their friends shuffled around so they made a circle.   
“He’s a bit of a prick but it is the best way to start..?” Leon proffered to his girlfriend tentatively.   
“Hey!” Arthur and Morgana protested simultaneously.   
“Just ‘cuz she’s your girlfriend, you have to take her side?”  
“Just ‘cuz he’s your childhood friend, you have to take his side?”  
Leon held up his hands in surrender. “Not taking sides! Just being honest”  
“Are we all in agreement with Arthurian legend then?”  
Everyone’s heads snapped from the bickering siblings (and Leon, the poor best friend/boyfriend caught in the middle) to the quiet, dark-haired figure hunched over a notebook.   
“I think it’s a great idea - we already have the main parts sorted!” Gavin flashed Merlin a cheeky grin. “Besides, this might be my chance to break away from my crappy name and rebrand as something cool.... like.... Gawain!”  
“Cool... Gawain.... I’m not really seeing the connection there mate” Percy joked, holding his hands out as if weighing the two words up. “You could try Gwaine though?”   
“Ooohhhh modernising Arthurian legend, I like it! It’s settled, I shall be Sir Gwaine, knight of the Round Table!”  
“So we’re really doing the whole ‘be the character our name most resembles’ thing then?” Elton pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. “What about those of us that don’t appear in the legend?”  
“Well, I would be Arthur, my dear sister would be Morgan Le Fay, Merlin is obviously Merlin, Gavin has clearly picked, and rebranded, Gawain or Gwaine or whatever, Gwen will be Guinevere...” Arthur tailed off looking around the group to see who else could be easily cast.   
“There’s a Knight of the Round Table called Percival! And Morty could be Mordred! Lawrence, we could make you Lancelot... and then we could just make Leon and Elton other knights of the round table?” Merlin started off eagerly and tailed off as the names of characters ran out before his friends did.   
“Sounds good, but I’m not gonna play ‘Sir Elton’, that sounds dumb.”  
“Sir John?” Gavin suggested cheekily.   
“Absolutely not. I will not become ‘Sir Elton John’, piss off Gav! I’ll be.... I’ll be ‘Sir Elyan’, that sounds cool!”  
“Well, that’s everyone sorted except Freya?” Merlin looked up from his notebook where he was quickly scribbling down all his friends’ suggestions, and noticed Freya was on the Wikipedia page for Arthurian legend.   
“I guess the only female character left is the Lady of the Lake, which suits me just fine!” Freya beamed. “I’ve always wanted to be shrouded in mystery!”  
“And we can have an offstage voice type thing for King Uther, to add a bit more of a story to it?” Leon suggested, which was met by many enthusiastic nods.   
“Then it’s settled!” Arthur stood up and addressed his friends. “We shall base our story on Arthurian legend.”  
“Are we going to think of a set of music or a storyline first?” Gwen asked, the pragmatic one as always.   
“We could flesh out the characters a little but based on how we want to play them, and see if anything jumps out at us?” Lawrence suggested, his cheeks colouring slightly when Gwen smiled brightly at him with approval.   
Merlin looked towards his uncle, who instinctively reacted to the feeling of eyes upon him in a quiet classroom. “Yes?” He asked, eyebrows quirked in his trademarked fashion, looking over the rim of his glasses at the group.   
“Well, we have cast sorted and we know which legend we’ll use as inspiration, but we don’t have the music yet. How would you recommend we go about choosing?” Merlin’s eyes flicked between his friends and his teacher, pen hovering above his notebook.   
“I suspect that Lawrence will have a sensible suggestion.” Gaius replies pointedly, not wanting to outright admit he had been eavesdropping but hoping to gently nudge the group in the right direction nonetheless. He turned back to his computer, deliberately not noticing the slowly reddening cheeks of the aforementioned student as Gwen flashed another blinding smile in his direction.  
“How about we all separately work on a character study, and then come together near the end of the lesson to see what everyone thinks? Then we can go away, maybe look at some bands’ discographies, and start brainstorming again tomorrow?” Leon looked around at his friends, moving to stand up as it seemed everyone agreed with him. “I’m going to work at a desk if people don’t mind, my leg still hurts from fencing last night.”  
Arthur grinned vaguely apologetically, and also climbed to his feet. “If it makes you feel better, Gavin got revenge on me on your behalf.”   
Gavin grinned, decidedly less apologetically than Arthur, and sprawled out casually into the space Leon had just vacated. “Should’ve been quicker mate!”  
Arthur walked off, not rising to the bait for once, while everyone else studiously ignored the exchange while getting out pens and paper to start writing. Gavin was always unbearably cocky when he had an audience. 

~~~~~~

Half an hour passed, when Morgana slammed down her notebook on the desk beside her boyfriend. “Well, I have the basis for my character.” She exclaimed loudly, as everyone else hurried to jot down a few more notes so as to not appear slow. A murmured chorus of “me too”s filled the next few minutes, until Gavin was the only one still writing. He looked up and shrugged, as if to say ‘you can’t rush art’, before finishing his sentence with a flourish. 

“Arthur first.” Morgana offered sweetly, as Arthur glared at her while returning to the circle. Then he held out his paper and started reading.  
“Arthur Pendragon, the noble king of Camelot, excellent warrior, always victorious-“  
“Yeah until he wasn’t” Gavin interrupted.  
“I WAS GETTING THERE- anyway, always victorious and led his army through many wars, lead a long and healthy life before finally being felled at Camlann by Mordred, his final and legendary battle. He had a loving wife, was a devoted husband, and was all round the perfect guy.” Arthur folded up the paper and looked around.   
“So it took you half an hour to come up with that, dear brother? This project is going to be awful!” Morgana groaned theatrically, before sitting back up and scanning her own paper. “This is what I was expecting by a character study, idiot!   
Morgan Le Fay, powerful enchantress, older half sister of Arthur and therefore the rightful heir to the throne.” She paused to glare at her brother, when Leon cleared his throat. She whipped around to look at him, and he cowered slightly.   
“According to legend, she’s the daughter of Igraine who becomes queen through marriage, therefore wouldn’t technically be eligible to inherit the throne from Uther...” he tailed off as his girlfriend deflated slightly, before Gwen piped up with a solution.   
“Well we’re having to change the narrative, let her be Uther’s half daughter, product of an affair! She could find out partway through and then become vengeful at being denied what she believes to be her rightful claim to the throne, and then she turns into an enemy?”  
There were nods and murmurs of assent, Lancelot smiling proudly at Gwen, and promptly looking away in embarrassment when she beamed back at him.   
“Excellent idea Gwen! Okay, slight change of character, but yes, the powerful sorceress turns against Arthur partway through, maybe taking Mordred with her? And then she orchestrates Arthur’s downfall and Mordred carries it out?”  
Everyone nodded in agreement, and Morty looked down at his character sheet before joining in with his ideas.   
“This actually works quite well, I had that my character was initially on Arthur’s side, but obviously a key point was that he is the one to mortally wound Arthur so had to turn against him at some point. I’d put down that he discovers he’s Arthur’s unclaimed bastard son, but it works having him side with Morgana - there are more enemies, so more reason for the audience to root for Arthur, who I presume will be the protagonist.”  
Everyone nodded again, slow smiles spreading across Merlin and Morgana’s faces as they saw the story falling into place. Gaius cleared his throat loudly from his desk, causing everyone to jump in surprise and confusion, as he looked pointedly at the clock that showed the lesson ended five minutes ago.   
“I’m pleased to see you’re making progress, but I’d rather like to get ready for the next class, if you don’t mind...”  
Merlin jumped to his feet, and the rest of the group followed his lead, gathering their bags. “Of course, sorry Gaius!! I’ll meet you at the car as usual?” Merlin smiled brightly at his uncle, who smiled back and nodded in confirmation. Merlin gave him a thumbs up, before turning to Lawrence and chatting animatedly about their project, while everyone else filed out in twos and threes towards their next lesson. Gaius shook his head fondly at the lot of them, still smiling, feeling pleased that things were going so well.   
“Hmmph, for now.” He reminded himself quietly, never one to relax for long. He’d known these kids since they were very young, and he was well aware that project stress and raging hormones were likely to bring out some interesting times. He shook his head gently, and tried to put them out of his mind before his next class arrived.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Congratulations for making it to the end of this chapter, hope it’s not too confusing!! If you are confused, Lancelot has become Lawrence, Gwaine is Gavin, Elyan is Elton, Mordred is Morty, and everyone else is the same. Next chapter will be the rest of the characters and music choice, so stick around!  
> Feedback, kudos and comments are always appreciated :)


	3. Chapter 3 - Home Time

Gaius was driving a very chatty Merlin back to their little house, trying to pay attention to both his nephew and the road in front of him.  
“This is so exciting, I really think it’s going to go well, don’t you agree Gaius? I can’t wait to do some more research into Arthurian legend to try and piece it all together to make a storyline, and I’m so excited to try and put it to music! Don’t you think has some real potential? I know Arthur and Morgana are basically leading the project as usual but I’m sure we’ll all have enough to contribute-“  
Merlin kept ploughing on through his chatter, asking Gaius questions that he didn’t wait for him to answer. Gaius sighed and gave up listening, opting instead to smile and nod while weaving through all the parked cars. He finally arrived at the empty space outside their flat and Merlin eagerly leapt out to help guide him in. He enthusiastically slapped the back of the car to warn Gaius he should stop, then flung open the car door, grabbed all their belongings, and practically skipped to their door. Gaius sighed and got out the car, shuffling slowly towards where Merlin had unlocked their door.  
“MUM!! WE’RE HOME!!!!” Merlin yelled, dropping Gaius’ stuff on the cluttered dining table before bounding up the stairs. Gaius was closing the front door as Hunith came to greet him, smiling at the slightly bemused look on his sister’s face.  
“Merlin seems full of energy” she remarked, as Gaius shrugged off his coat, and raised his eyebrow at her.  
“I hadn’t noticed.” He quipped, carefully taking off his shoes before looking up and grinning. “He’s particularly enthused about the theatre project this year.” He explained, before collapsing on the sofa. He was getting to old to keep up with the youngsters, but he loved his job and wouldn’t give it up for anything. Hunith’s eyes crinkled in delight as she handed Gaius a cup of tea before going upstairs to find her son. 

Merlin was already sat at his old computer, jacket flung on the floor on the pile of clothes next to his bed. Hunith cleared her throat, and Merlin leapt up, swept the clothes from the ground, and dumped them in his laundry bin, before sheepishly reaching in and plucking out his jacket. Giving it a quick brush, he returned the jacket to the peg in the back of his door, and looked expectantly at his mum. “I’m glad to see you so enthused about school work, but I need you to quickly deliver the apples, pears, and blackberries to Mr Owain and Cedric, the raspberries to Helen, and the candles to Will please! They’ve already paid, I just didn’t have time to drop them off today.”  
Hunith explained apologetically, as Merlin grabbed his jacket and satchel again.  
“No problem Mum! Sorry for not asking before, I completely forgot you had a lot of deliveries today! I’ll go do them right away.” Merlin pulled Hunith in for a quick hug, before bounding down the stairs, scooping the paper bags on the dining table into his satchel, and headed out the door. Hunith smiled to herself before heading back downstairs into her greenhouse to finish tending her fruit and vegetable garden. 

Merlin ran down the street, knocking on the doors, pulling out the right bag, and handing it over to his neighbours with a large grin, before taking off again to deliver the next bag. He stopped for breath and a quick chat with his childhood friend Will about the new private school his friend had got into, before practically sprinting back home. He raced upstairs again and sat at his computer furiously typing away into a word document, stopping only to browse through various pages on Arthurian legend he found on google. 

~~~~

By the time Hunith called that dinner was ready, Merlin had calmed down a bit. He’d finished what he wanted to achieve that evening, and still had time to do some chemistry homework before going to sleep. Gaius, Hunith, and Merlin all sat around the dinner table exchanging tales of their day, with Merlin chatting animatedly about the theatre project, Gaius interjecting every now and then, and Hunith telling them about her progress in the garden. By the time dinner was finished, there was just enough hours in the day for Gaius to make some more of his famous scented oils for candles, Hunith to relax with a book, and Merlin to get ahead with his chemistry. He sat at his computer and put his headphones in, not wanting to disturb the peace his mum was enjoying, and clicked on his Daily Mix playlist on Spotify.  
After a few hours of working, Merlin completed his homework, closing his work tabs with a satisfied sigh, and he sat back to enjoy some music before sleeping. He hadn’t really been paying attention to what was playing, and was surprised that this particular mix had picked a lot of “emo music” (as Arthur and Gwaine teased Merlin and Freya about frequently). He tapped along lightly on his desk as the song came to an end, and began humming along to the beginning of the next song. Unbidden, an image of Arthur singing flashed into his mind.  
‘Tonight we are victorious, champagne pouring over us, all my friends are glorious, tonight we are victorious’ 

Merlin sat up straighter, connecting the song to Arthur’s words earlier. Victorious. Huh. Maybe his “emo music” would come in handy after all...

Although that connection didn’t quite explain why Arthur was also dancing rather provocatively in his imagination. Merlin squeezed his eyes shut before opening them again, turning off the music and trying to get the image of Arthur out of his mind. He was finally feeling the energy from earlier fading out and he was tired, that was all. He refused to acknowledge the mental image of Arthur strutting around, opting instead to scramble out of his clothes and into some sleepwear, before crashing into bed and falling asleep almost instantly. And when he woke up in the morning, he definitely did not recall having any dreams at all, especially not ones involving Arthur’s small smile of approval at his ideas in class followed by a lap dance of approval while singing Panic! at the Disco songs. Which wasn’t even a thing. Which was why Merlin definitely didn’t dream about it. No dreams at all, none about anything ordinary or extraordinary or anything in between. No dreams about Arthur finally noticing him and showing respect nuh-uh nope no dreams at all. He definitely didn’t dream. 

Even Merlin was unconvinced by his lie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you didn’t realise, Merlin definitely did dream about Arthur that night. Not because he’s in love with him or anything. Obviously...
> 
> Thanks for making it this far!! In trying to keep the characters fairly similar to the show, I’ve taken substantial creative license with reality here. Hunith is a gardener, selling her fruits and vegetables and herbs for money. As well as teaching at the sixth form college, Gaius makes legendary scented oils which Hunith also works into candles which are rumoured to have healing properties. I’m sure this is not how anything works but you’ll have to suspend disbelief here!
> 
> Merlin, his mum, and her brother all live together in a little council house in a poor area of the town. Will also lives on that street but is slightly better off than them and has gone to a private school while Merlin managed to get in to a school further away where his uncle teaches, so both of them can have better education standards even though they get to see less of each other. However, I fully intend to have some proper Will and Merlin interactions at some point!
> 
> Again, not beta’d and I don’t own any of the characters or music or anything, I’m just having a bit of fun!


End file.
